A critical evaluation of the usefulness of a coding scheme to categorise levels of reflective thinking |
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| Authors: | Amani Bell Jill Kelton Nadia McDonagh Rosina Mladenovic Kellie Morrison |
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| Institution: | 1. Institute for Teaching and Learning , The University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia;2. Career and Employer Relations Office, Faculty of Economics and Business , The University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia;3. Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business, Faculty of Economics and Business , The University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia;4. Discipline of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business , The University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The use of reflective learning journals to encourage higher order learning outcomes is a growing area in higher education research and practice. However, without a unified and clear definition of reflection, identifying and assessing reflection is problematic for educators. In an attempt to address this issue, in 1999 Kember and colleagues devised a coding scheme based on the work of Mezirow, to identify and assess levels of reflective thinking in students' written journals. We evaluated the usefulness of this coding scheme in a business education context. Findings revealed that the scheme was useful in identifying categories of reflective thinking. Inter‐coder agreement was 0.802 which is satisfactory. On average, 65% of the journal content was coded as non‐reflection and 35% as reflection. A further outcome of the research was to refine the coding scheme and to provide suggestions for its application in teaching practice. |
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| Keywords: | reflective journals reflective practice business education |
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